By Hailey Murphy
Progress is being made to implement a program to increase the number of international students at Western, even as concerns remain about the specifics of the program.
Last September, Western signed a ten-year contract with Study Group, a for-profit corporation that recruits international students. This contract establishes a Global Pathways Program on campus, in which international students attend a pathway year to improve their English and other skills before becoming a full student. Western, in return, pays hefty portions of international student’s tuition to Study Group.
On January 23, the Academic Coordinating Commision (ACC) unanimously passed the Academic Working Group’s outlined proposal for the Global Pathways Program pathway year. On February 12, the faculty senate also approved the plan. However, some concerns remain with the plan.
A cohort of faculty and administration traveled to James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia on January 19. The group included representatives from the faculty union, the College of Business and Economics and the Institute for Global Engagement. It also included Jeff Young, faculty senate representative, and Brent Carbajal, provost and vice president for academic affairs.
“After considering the long conversations with the Academic group and the information we gathered in this field trip, I am convinced the Global Pathway Program is an important effort by Western,” said Ricardo Lopez, the faculty union representative on the trip. “What the faculty senate has in front is a framework to be implemented so that the program can move forward. But we, as academic group, are quite aware that such framework will need to be evaluated, changed, and reformed along the way.”
The approved Academic Working Group plan outlines placement in to different levels of the Intensive English Program– a test score of five on the International English Language Testing System exam will place a student in level four of the Intensive English Program at Western, while a score of six will place them at level six.
It also includes a list of academic content courses that will be available to pathway students. Each english program level includes a different list of courses and a different credit requirement.
Field Trip to JMU and Program Concerns
JMU has worked with Study Group since 2008 and was the first North American university to implement international recruitment and a pathways program, according to Young’s report on the project.
JMU’s program offers a four-semester,two-year-long pathway, while Western is offering a three-quarter, one-year-long pathway . The data provided in Young’s report throws into question if a three quarter pathway will be sufficient for Western’s pathway students.
“2-semester [one year] students are reported to be ready or close-to-ready to matriculate, and often use the year as a ‘soft landing,’” the report states. “The 3-semester students have high pathway program success rates, while the 4-semester students have a lower rate of matriculating into the general student population.”
Additionally, some of the data in this report strokes fears faculty have expressed since the beginning about lack of diversity within the program. JMU’s current population of pathway students is 85 percent students from China, with 60 to 70 percent of the students majoring in business.
Giffen expressed these concerns back in November.
“Faculty are concerned about the recruitment practices that we don’t have control of, that we’re relinquishing admission and recruitment practices to this company… which will be recruiting largely in countries like India and China,” said Giffen.
However, at a faculty senate meeting in November, Carbajal insisted that this wouldn’t be an issue.
“One of the reasons we went with Study Group is their commitment to recruit students… from all over the world, not from those [India and China]. And more importantly, their commitment to multiple areas of study,” Carbajal said.
But it’s a possibility that students won’t want to come to the United States at all, no matter where they’re from.
“Admissions are quite significantly down because of the political climate, which isn’t completely unexpected,” Giffen said.. “[This] suggests that this could be a particularly challenging time [for Western] to be initiating such a program. [JMU] typically has 100 to 150 students in their pathways program, and right now they have 73.”
These concerns were brought up during the February 12 meeting with the faculty senate. According to Carbajal, however, the current political climate shouldn’t affect Study Group’s ability to bring more international students to campus.
“If the difficulties in recruiting international students persist, we will still be doing much better than we were before, regardless if we meet our goals of 75 undergraduate and 25 graduate students for next year,” said Carbajal.
Admission standards are another concern for faculty. According to the contract with Study Group, students must have a 2.5 GPA and score 4.5 on the International English Language Testing System to be considered for admission. An international student without the program would typically need a minimum score of 6.5. On top of that, there is no SAT or GMAT requirement for admission.
It appears that other universities have had issues with Study Group’s admission standards as well.
“The JMU administration describes Study group as a good partner, however there has been some friction between Study Group and JMU over maintaining admissions standards,” Young stated in his report.
While Western is ultimately in charge of all admission decisions, this line suggests that Study Group may push universities to lower their admission standards. That being said, control isn’t and won’t be relinquished to Study Group.
“JMU felt that they drive the standards and the curriculum for their international students,” said Mark Stanton from the College of Business and Economics.
On Monday, January 29, Emily Williams Knight, a Managing Director at Study Group, came to a faculty senate meeting to answer questions.
“I thought the meeting was not terribly helpful,” said Allison Giffen, president of the faculty senate. “I became more confused rather than less confused. I was disheartened by her language that referred to students as commodities.”
One thing made clear during the meeting with Williams Knight, as outlined in the faculty senate minutes, is that Western is in control of admissions. Recruiting agents pass on applications to Western for acceptance, and Western decides if students are ready to matriculate into the university after going through the pathway program.
Pathway Year in Detail
The Academic Working Group has been working since fall to compose an outline for the pathway program. The group is composed of representatives from the Intensive English Program, the Institute for Global Engagement, the faculty senate and various colleges across campus.
The pathway program drafted by the Academic Working Group outlines a three quarter pathway for students who score a five on the English language exam, which will place them in level four of the intensive english program, defined as “early advanced.” Students who get higher exam scores will be placed in level five or six of the program and will spend less quarters in the pathway before matriculating into the university.
The proposal also lists academic content courses international students can take in their pathway year.
Students in level four of the program are expected to take four to five contact hours per week of any given math class (101, 112, 114, 124, 156, 157). Students in level six are expected to take eight to ten contact hours of academic content, but have more options such as Dance 101, Finance 216, and Leadership 101.
In order to matriculate into the university, students must complete level six with a 2.0 GPA in both their English courses and their academic content courses.
In the current program, students in level six may sit in on academic content courses. However, they are simply observing, and are not receiving credit for the class. International students in the pathway will be expected to get a 2.0 in these courses at levels as low as four, which has raised questions among some faculty.
“I’m concerned about students coming in here who don’t have adequate language skills and then have to do the pathway year, in which they’re taking IEP classes… They might have [the language skills] on paper to succeed here but then are taking four credit classes at levels four, five and six and need to get a 2.0 to matriculate into our program,” Giffen said. “That puts a lot of pressure on these students and I’m not persuaded that we have the counseling services and the infrastructure yet to support them.”
The minutes from the January 29 meeting with Williams Knight state: “A faculty member expressed concern that the GPP allows students with a level 4 in Intensive English Program (IEP) to take credit bearing courses, stating that if it were possible for students to successfully take credit-bearing courses at level 4, than it would already be happening. Carbajal stated that Western has not had a dialogue on this possibility before now and that IEP was focused on a different target market. Carbajal added that Study Group is focused on recruiting students for the [Global Pathways Program.]”